How I Secured an Already Taken Username on Twitter & Instagram

I have the unfortunate and rather SEO-damaging habit of changing my social media handles a lot. I’ve used modlove, loveifeyinwa and januaryeleventh before finally realising that the only name I wouldn’t get fed up with was my own.

Unfortunately, by the time I had this epiphany, the handle @ifeyinwa had been taken on Instagram and Twitter. Plus all the usual symbol and number variations were also no longer available. And as if that wasn’t bad enough I couldn’t find the same variation available across both platforms so I made due with @1feyinwa on Instagram and @1feyinwao on Twitter. Needless to say this bothered me to no end.

Why Do I Even Care?

In the grand scheme of life it really doesn’t matter what your social media handles are. However, if you (like me) are trying to build a personal brand, it helps to have consistent usernames across your social media platforms. Especially when you have a relatively small following like I do. It makes it easier for people to remember how to find you which strengthens your brand. And on a personal level, there’s something really satisfying about having things like this be consistent.

Luckily for me, @ifeyinwa handles on Instagram and Twitter had pretty much been abandoned. The Instagram user hadn’t used it since 2015 while the Twitter user hadn’t used it since 2011. So I felt a bit more comfortable with finding out how to go about securing the @ifeyinwa handles as they were both inactive.

*For the sake of maintaining people’s privacy I will be withholding the identities of all the parties involved.

How I Got @ifeyinwa on Twitter

I’m starting off with how I got the @ifeyinwa handle on Twitter because it was the easier experience of the two. I started off with sending @ifeyinwa a tweet but I never got a response which I expected considering she hadn’t tweeted anything since 2011.

Twitter states in their policy that they delete inactive usernames and release then to the public after 6 months but I didn’t find that to be true so I expect it’s just some ploy to keep people invested in the app. I did some more research on how to claim inactive usernames and came across this blog post claiming to have successfully retrieved an inactive usernames by filing an impersonation claims.

I attempted to file a claim an impersonation claim following the exact instructions and it was a complete waste of time.

This is the response I got from them:

Twitter will not release a username to you just because the account is inactive. I mean Taylor Swift’s Twitter handle is @taylorswift1 for goodness sake.

So I went back to the drawing board. I got really lucky because the full name of the owner of the account was listed on her profile. A quick search for her name in Google and I got a hit to her LinkedIn. I messaged her directly and I got a reply in a few hours! She made the exchange and the username was mine! And what’s more, she wouldn’t even let me pay her for it. She was very gracious and I can’t believe how lucky I got with that.

How I Got @ifeyinwa on Instagram

Now Instagram was a whole different story. I sent @ifeyinwa a DM and left comments on her photos and shocking to no one, I never heard back. Searching for her full name on Google also proved to be futile. I also tried sending DMs to people that had commented on her photos – nothing.

Instagram support is a joke to be honest. My attempts to file a similar impersonation or copyright claims were never even acknowledged. *Welp*

After months of radio silence I decided to go through her followers list to see if we had any mutual friends – we didn’t. Then I finally resorted to messaging her followers. Now I know I sound like a crazy person but there was a method to my madness. I looked for people who were active on Instagram and people who had the same surname as the owner. I figured they’d be related to the owner and would have the best chance of knowing her. Luckily this route worked for me and FINALLY I got a response from the owner’s cousins.

From that point, it was pretty simple, we spoke briefly on WhatsApp and she was happy to let me take over the handle.

Things to Note

• Make sure the current owner does not just delete their account. Deleting the account may not necessarily free the username (confusing I know). To be on the safe side, ask the current owner to change their username e.g. from @ifeyinwa to @ifeyinwa98765 to free up the username. They can always delete their account after the transfer. Make sure your ready and waiting to snap up the username AS SOON as it becomes available.

• You may have to pay the owner. I’m pretty sure this goes against the ethics of these platforms but that’s just the reality. Unless you’re dealing with a very highly sought after name like @John or @Bees you can get a username for a very reasonable amount. Personally I paid N10,000 ($30 or £20) for @ifeyinwa on Instagram and I insisted on paying after the transfer was successful.

• There’s a fine line between being persistent and obnoxious. I tried as much as possible to not bombard people with messages. When I was trying to get a hold of the Instagram owner, I’d only message 3 people at a time. And if I didn’t hear back after two attempts, I’d move on. Wording is also particularly important as tone can often easily be misinterpreted. Keep your messages short, play things down as much as you can and if all else fails try to speak on the phone. The last thing you want to do is come across as forceful.

Looking back on all of this, the hardest party about this was getting a hold of the owner. This took a level of investigation and borderline stalking that I never knew I possessed. But now I am the happy owner of @Ifeyinwa across Twitter, Instagram and on Youtube. If you are persistent and lucky enough to run into people that aren’t actively using their accounts, chances are you will be successful too.

I hope you found this useful. If it works for you, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Good luck!